Weekly Recap

Thanks to Owen, who’s been out around the Cape installing new systems on a number of boats this week! Thanks also to JiM and Huanxin who finished packing up and mailing out the Vemco Minilog (non-realtime) sensors for their last deployment this year, and finally, thanks to Captains Dominic (F/V Tyrant), Curt (F/V Lil More Tail), George (F/V Eagle), Robert (F/V Darana R), Mark (F/V Prevail), David (R/V Gemma), Rob (F/V Bookie), and Todd (F/V Voyager) for reaching out to share reports of malfunctioning deckboxes and suggestions for improvements. We appreciate all of our industry partners taking the time to let us know how we can improve the program.

This week, the eMOLT fleet recorded 128 tows of sensorized fishing gear totaling 960 sensor hours underwater. The warmest recorded bottom temperature was 60.5 F north of Muskeget Island in approximately 10 fathoms (red profile) and the coldest recorded bottom temperature was 39.3 F east of Cape Ann in approximately 29 fathoms (blue profile).

Water on top of Georges Bank remains well mixed (black profile) around 50 degrees F, while just off the northern edge in around 80 fathoms, temps drop down to the lower 40s near the bottom (orange profile). Downeast Maine remains well mixed and cool with temps around 45 F from surface to bottom (purple profile).

Figure 1 – Temperature profiles collected by eMOLT participants over the last week. The blue profile is where the coldest bottom temperature was measured and the red profile is where the warmest bottom temperature was measured. All other colors are assigned randomly. Colored points on the map indicate where profiles of the same color were collected. The small dark green dots represent other profiles collected this week, but not highlighted in the plot. Note that the warmest / coldest bottom temperatures measured could have occurred during gear soaks, which are not represented on this profile plot.